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Advanced Cgi Programming and Server Administration

Resources

Many budding programmers write to me for tips on this or that. Below is a list of links that will save you an email. If you really need personal help in your programming efforts, the best place to turn to is the usenet. Join comp.lang.perl.misc for perl, in particular. You might even find your answer in existing usenet posts. If you hate usenet, you can always search via DejaNews or Altavista.

Recommended Server Software

  • Favorite O/S: Linux Red Hat. My money is on Linux and this distribution in particular. Installation wizard completely removes horrors of installing earlier Linux versions.
  • Perl for Windows: Activestate - Free!
  • Perl for Unix: Download from perl.com - Free!
  • C/C++ compiler (Windows): gcc - Free and same as unix version + ports of other unix utilities.
  • Java compiler: Sun's JDK - Free and uncorrupted by the enemy! Much better and faster versions exist, but cost money.
  • Unix web server: Apache - Still free and still the best damn web server out there.
  • NT server: iis. The default web server and there's no reason to use anything else if only for its features that extend beyond http (ftp and smtp, newsgroups),and active server pages. Microsoft, once again, stomps out any competing products.
  • Secure server [Unix]: Stronghold - Based on Apache (not cheap!).
  • Free Secure server [Unix]: Mod_SSLeay - SSL Module for Apache. Uses SSLeay just as Stronghold does. Not for the faint hearted.
  • Web Stats: Wusage - By one of the world's finest programmers. If you like something more friendly, try Urchin, but it relies too much on javascript, which means the occasional Javascript error.
  • Unix mail server: Sendmail - Not friendly, but robust and free and still the most widely used MTA. Standard issue with any Unix flavor. Other solid alternatives are Exim, and Qmail.

Recommended Client Software

  • Email: Eudora. Lost of good alternatives, but this veteran product has had it right, right from the start!
  • Ftp: WS-Ftp. Other good alternatives are Cute ftp and Ncftp.

Recommended Graphics Software

Recommended Secure Transaction Services

Recommended Reference Books (Links to Barnes and Noble descriptions).

  • Professional Active Server Pages 2.0
    Like it or not, asp is a big success story for Microsoft and has even been ported to Unix which is almost unheard of. Personally, I prefer it by far to Cold Fusion in terms of server-side document-embedded scripting. This huge book covers a lot of material, and goes deep into the practical applications of asp. The only negative is the hefty price, but if you have to have an book on asp, you won't go wrong with this one.
  • Sendmail
    Don't even think of getting this book unless you need to do tricks with sendmail. It's a huge volume that doesn't leave much to the imagination. Will need a revision soon, but much of what it covers still applies to the most recent versions of Sendmail.
  • Perl: Advanced PERL Programming Not so advanced but highly rated by many others. Sriram Srinivasam is a highly respected programmer in the perl community, but his book fails to bring forth any new ideas or techniques that aren't already covered by the Perl Cookbook [See below]. However, if you're not satisfied with a reference style book, this is an excellent second choice. Personally, I found it a tedious read, especially since he devotes an awful lot of space to comparing perl to other programming languages.
  • Perl: PERL Cookbook
    The classic! The indispensable perl reference. Rather than presenting each perl function manual-style, it is structured by type of problem, and usually offers more than one solution with code samples and clear explanations. Everybody has something to learn from this one. For beginners, however, I would sooner recommend something like Programming PERL 5, which is also a classic.

Recommended hosting services

Honestly, I can't say I can recommend any hosting service 100%. It's one of those businesses where service typically sucks and hype reigns as competition is rampant. One good thing is that prices have hit rock bottom (they can't afford a decent service staff, I reckon!), so it pays to shop around. There's also plenty of free hosting sites, if you're happy with the usually strict limitations they impose.

Obviously, this being a programming related site, I recommend eliminating any hosting service that doesn't give you a free reign with cgis. Other no-nos are the "data transfer charges" which are sheer b.s., a one time "installation" charge, and assorted other "extra" charges to add this or that. Before you sign-up, test sites on their servers for response times. If it's under 200 ms, that's passable, but you'd be surprised how many are in the stratosphere.

One more thing: make sure the company you're dealing with actually isn't a reseller. Resellers are merely clowns who look like the real thing, but don't actually own or physically maintain the machines you'll be hosted on. Service is usually the pits and the middle man could walk off with your money, in which case the real hosting company could wash its hands of you since you're not actually their client. One way to find out if they're resellers is to do a "whois" on their domain name. The listed technical contact will typically be from the real host, as may be the name server addresses. Do a whois on any one of those, or visit their website, and that should tell you the whole story.

To compare what hosting companies offer and check response times, try a database of hosts such as Tophosts.com.

Recommended Hardware (Link to manufacturers' specs)

  • Scanner: H-P Scanjet 5100C - Perfect output with no tinkering whatsoever. Includes Adobe Photo Deluxe.

 

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